April 24, 2022 • 42 mins
In this week's episode of the Pet Owner Diary Show, Co-Host Tay Shoemaker sits down with a close friend, Hannah Van Overbeek, owner and the creative mind behind Project Polliwog. Project Polliwog is a frog jewelry, and lifestyle brand, proceeds of all purchases go to helping endangered frog species as well as Tay’s Exotic Critters Rescue (Yes, our very own Tay!). They talk about the business process, saving frogs, and Polliwog’s adorable cottage-core jewelry! You don’t want to miss this if your aspiring social entreprenuer, and exotic entusiast!
Guest Links:
Website: https://projectpolliwog.com/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/protectpolliwog?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Tiktok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdXCtpVj/
Guest Links:
Website: https://projectpolliwog.com/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/protectpolliwog?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Tiktok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdXCtpVj/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Pet Owner Diary Podcast, a show about helping you become a
better pet parent. In each episode, we deliver raw, honest, funny,
and insightful advice on how to bea great pet parent for any type
of pet. Now here's your host, America's Pet Owner Coach, Janelle Young,
a pet family. Welcome back tothe pet Owner Diary Show. My
(00:24):
name is Tashuemaker, and I willbe your co host for the next hour
or so. Today's episode is goingto be very laid back, very chill.
It's been a long week, sowe're just gonna sit back and have
some fun. I have held itoff long enough, friends, I cannot
physically go any longer without talking aboutfrogs. So today episode is going to
(00:48):
be about frogs, but I promiseto keep it interesting and fun for the
people who are like not about frogs. So over the last fifty years,
more than five hundred amphibian species haveexperienced extreme population decline. Ninety of those
species have gone completely extinct as apart of the sixth mass extinction period that
(01:11):
we're currently in. According to areport from the United Nations, forty percent
of the world's amphibian species are inthe threatened status when it comes to the
level of extinction. Fifteen of thesespecies live and are native to the US.
I want you all to meet avery close friend of mine, Hannah
(01:33):
van Overbeek, the founder and creativemind behind Project Pollywog. Polywog aims to
help endangered frog species by selling adorablefrog themed jewelry and other froggy items.
Hey, Hannah, how are youdoing. Thank you so much for hosting
me today. I'm honestly super thrilledto even be on this show. Super
(01:53):
grateful. This will be so funto talk about frogs with you. Yes,
and of family. Hannah's actually atmy house. She is sitting right
next to me, like I canlook at her. So if they can
touch you, yes, you know, we could like touch her what we
want, but we're not gonna dothat, yea. And yeah, so
(02:14):
we're sharing one Mike, So it'sa little bit like Lady in the tramp
Spaghetti scene, but like with twogood friends. But Hannah is also my
boss. I am her executive assistantwhatever that means, but if basically means
that I answer emails and I takeyou pictures of her whenever she needs me
to do that, and so Hannah, please go ahead and introduce yourself to
(02:38):
everyone. Tell us a little bitabout you. Introduce yourself to the class.
Well, my name is Hannah,as tag introduced, I am obsessed
with frogs, which is how meand tame at about a year ago.
So she actually came across one ofmy ads that I was running on Instagram
and she was like, Oh mygosh, it's fucking jewelry, Like that's
(03:00):
cute, and she reached out andwe became like really fast friends after that
because it was just like both ofour missions aligned and our brands really syncd
up well together. But yeah,I started Project Polylogue in May. It's
almost going to be a year oldactually coming up here, but I started
in May of last year just becauseI felt like I needed to develop a
(03:24):
deeper purpose, like actually make adifference in the world. My background is
in business, and that is kindof where I guess how I found my
career. My careers in business andthe companies that i'd been running prior never
really like felt deep to me.They never felt like I was actually making
(03:45):
a big difference in the world,especially for our planet and our environment,
which I do care about. Somy love of frogs and jewelry and business
kind of just all combined together tocreate Project Polylog. A huge part of
the reason I started Project Polylog aswell was because I was kind of transitioning
to a time in my life whereI felt like I was losing my childhood.
(04:08):
I felt like, you know,I'm growing up and and it's I
don't know, you start to seelife sort of black and white and it
loses the color. I mean.Yeah, So I kind of designed all
of the packaging and everything around childhood, like with obviously like with an older
(04:28):
twist to it. So like thejewelry is very I guess minimal, but
still really cute. But yeah,so every every box comes infuse with childhood
and the adoption certificates everything. Yeah. So that's a little bit about me
and Project Pollywog. Yeah, andso Project Polylog. You've said this to
me before your mission or like adream you have for Polylog is to you
(04:54):
know, hopefully help every species offrog one day and like maybe even say
every species. That amazing. Idefinitely. We actually just recently partnered with
the Amphibian Foundation, which is locatedin Georgia. They're one of the companies
that we weel companies one of thefoundations, they're one of the foundations that
(05:14):
we donate to, and they're actuallyactively out there repopulating frogs, saving them.
They do all sorts of other amphibianslike salamanders and all the other ones.
Yeah, we love all amphibians,not just proboms. Yeah we're a
little biased, but we love themall exactly. But a lot of what
they need is they just need likesupplies, they need material, they need
(05:35):
to pay their people, and sothat's where Project Pollilog comes in and kind
of helps provide the resources for them, yea, saving the frogs. So
ideally we'd like to help them branchout all across the United States because their
goal is to create repopulation centers likeall over with different species of amphibians.
(05:56):
Yeah. Super cool. Yeah,so yeah, the Amphibian Foundation is based
in the US, but no,they're definitely I've heard talks of them wanting
to stretch out and stuff like that. So, um, they're an amazing,
amazing foundation. UM and the factthat they you know, have someone
that um can help them with likemonthly donations is amazing because everyone there is
(06:16):
so great. UM. So shoutout to the Amphibian Foundation amazing. Um.
Yeah, and so Polywog currently,Um so you're selling jewelry, you're
selling you know, prints, stufflike that, Like how would you describe
what Polywog kind of specializes in orcells if you can't, I know,
(06:40):
there's a wide range. I meanhonestly, a majority of the products are
the jewelry. So I would definitelysay Patrick Polywog is more of a jewelry
line, right, um so,but yeah, I mean everything has frogs
in it, so of course.Yeah, And like I just I noticed
too, like when I when Iwas starting, there was like no frog
(07:01):
jewelry like frogenine jewelry, and theones that we're out there were just like
not really my vibey cute little nolittle attacking exitly so we'd see, you
know that the pier or gift shopsnot knocking them. Those are great too,
push back the hustles, but butnot not the trip I want to
(07:23):
wear. But yeah, so Iso when I designed my jewelry line,
it was kind of like, oh, I want to like make it cute,
I want to make animals. Sowe use a lot of things,
like we use lots of lily pads. We use frogs in every design,
We use mushrooms, flowers, likepretty much everything nature related. It's very
it's very cottage. Yeah, that'syeah. And I mean for you know
(07:45):
the older people that are listening whoare like, what the hell's cottage court?
Um, it's so it's kind ofa thing. A lot of gen
Z, I would say, istrying to revert back to like living in
a cute little cottage with like animalsand flowers all around, and like wearing
pretty dresses and stuff like that andgreen gables. Yes, very much,
(08:05):
very much so. Um. Soit's a lot of that. So it's
very But the jewelry is beautiful,like it's I mean, I didn't think
I was a gold person until Itried on Polyologus jewelry and then I was
like, okay, I have toswitch all of my jewelry because this is
like the color um. But theydo silver as well. Yeah, we
(08:28):
branched out after we got a coupleof requests. We started with gold and
then we branched out to silver.Yeah. And so they're they're also very
durable, I've noticed. So whatdo y'all use to make them? Yes,
so we actually just switched it over. So our newest our guest,
our newest restock is going to beall stainless steel base. So the reason
(08:50):
we chose stainless steel over like brass, seeing all of these other ones,
is because what happens is and I'msure you'll are very familiar with them,
especially yeah, especially it tarnishes,it turns your skin green. It's not
it doesn't like work in water.It's just super sensitive. Um. And
so we chose the stainless steel basebecause it doesn't do that. Yeah,
(09:13):
and it lasts a lot longer,and it doesn't tarnishes easily, and I
mean it's just a great material.And for the gold, the gold ones
they're actually gold plated with fourteen caregoold. Yeah, so they're fancy.
Yeah, they're here, they last. And then the silver ones are stainless
steel okay yeah, and no stainlesssteel. When I think of stainless steel,
(09:35):
I think of like piercings because yeah, you know, um, so
they're they're healthy, they're not goingto turn your green. Yeah yeah,
it'll be okay, um, andthey really last. I mean I have
the tiny frog on a lily padone. Um, yeah, I have
my two frogs kissing in a heartright now. Um, but I have
(09:58):
had that one for I think sinceOctober. Yeah, I would say that,
yeah, like any Christmas collaboration.Yeah, and it's like perfect.
It has not had any issues.Um, I did tangle the train a
little bit, but it's fine.I got it undone. Um so yeah,
no, they definitely last and they'resuper cute, super simple. Um
(10:20):
and I think it's really good ifyou're like wanting fancy jewelry that is not
fancy, or like you want tolook fancy like I wear mine. If
I'm going to an event in likea pretty dress, I'll throw the monk
because they're simple, they're easy,and um yeah they're they're adorable. All
right. So we do have totake a quick break, but we'll be
(10:41):
right back with Hannah from Project Polliwogat Nava Pets. We know how important
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(11:56):
your pet with goodness, treat yourpet like they treat you. Welcome back
(12:16):
that family. We are here withHannah van Overbeak of Project Polylog. Polylog
the way the Brits say frog orcat pole is spelled p o l l
i g or excuse me, pO l l i w o G.
I can spell I went to school. Um and yeah, project exactly what
(12:39):
you think it would be spelt.And you guys can go check out the
website Project Pollywog dot com. Um, there's a bunch of cute stuff over
in the shop. You can readabout Hannah's mission and all that fun stuff.
Um, so we were talking aboutthe jewelry, and I think the
(13:01):
the other thing that sounds really reallywell is your prints. Like when I
am, I do the customer service, so I see I get to see
like all the orders and stuff,and people are constantly ordering the frog collage
kits. Yeah those are man,you know. I when I when I
launched those, the wall art kits, I originally didn't expect them to do
(13:26):
so well. I was kind oflike, oh, this is like a
king little side product. Yeah.Reason yeah, Like the reason I even
put them up there to begin withwas because I literally made it for myself,
like I made it for my wallbecause I saw them all over TikTok
and I was like, I wantYeah, well, I mean that's that's
good. Like if you can likeit, if you like your product,
that's a good sign. Yeah,if you know, But like, how
(13:48):
do you do it? Yeah?Though, I totally yeah, I'm all
about designing stuff that I would actuallyuse. But yeah, I launched those
and like everybody just loved them.And I actually made them by combing through
like tons of vintage articles like magazines, all of these different things and then
editing them making them look how Iwant them to look, kind of page
(14:11):
and cute, and so that's howI made them. And yeah, I
mean they just popped off. Peoplelove them so yeah. Well, and
I mean they're so eat. Soit's you have never heard of a collage
wall or have no idea what we'retalking about. Collage walls are basically I
mean, they're so easy to make. You literally just take art prints,
you know, literally anything you want. I have them all over my house.
(14:35):
I love them. If you're amaximalist like me, they're great and
you literally just stick them to thewall. And you know, Hannah sells
these kits which makes it so easy, so you don't have to print off
anything yourself, and you can chooselike some if you want sticky tech or
(14:56):
putty, you know whatever, youcall it, the blue the wall,
a little blue wall putty that liketeachers use all the time. Um,
and they're so easy a stick upand they do not the putty is so
great because it does not take thepaint off through your walls. Yep.
I have used tape before, Ihave used pushpans before. Those are a
miss. Not render friendly, notrender somebody at all. So yeah,
(15:20):
and then you also have So thereis there's one thing that we do want
to talk about, and that isa new product coming in a new kind
of collaboration. Could you tell uswhat's going down? I think tomorrow.
Yeah, actually it'll be it'll beFriday for y'all, but tomorrow's Friday for
(15:41):
us. So yeah, firstday launch. So actually I was on TikTok and
this one account popped up on myfor you page, and as it does,
yeah, yeah, and this guyNick was on there talking about his
sustainable clothing brand and I saw thatand I was like, oh my gosh.
(16:03):
The style, like the designs,like everything was so retro, like
very very like early days Mickey Mouseflip note type of feeling right, and
I love that art style. Andso I was like, oh my gosh,
sustainable que clothes, Like the colorsare adorable. And I mean the
reason it's sustainable is because all ofhis clothing, totebags, phone cases,
(16:26):
everything is one biodegradable, yeah,two recycled, recycled um. And it's
just it's crazy. I mean,like you'd think that the clothes would be
really uncomfortable, like yeah, they'reliterally so soft, and I just I
love him. So I reached outto him and I was like, hey,
Nick, like, nice to meetyou. I say, this is
(16:48):
great archer. Oh yeah, Cher, this great archer. Yeah, Nick's
Knicks brand is great archer. Uhand yeah. So I reached out to
him and we connected. We hoppedonto a zoom call. We talked about
a collaboration. And if you canbelieve this, Nick is nineteen years old.
He's nineteen. I'm older than allof you, but I'm gonna out.
(17:11):
This is what I do. Iout people when they come here.
Hand. It's only twenty, soit's fine. Everyone knows my age.
I've said it multiple times now.So we little babies. We're just trying
to figure out the world. Butyeah, so we did this clab and
I designed the art. We isso cute. If you'll like, if
you'all like a book series Frog andToad, it reminds me of that,
(17:36):
but very like like Frog and Toadif they were like seventies sixty. I
actually was inspired by Over the Garden. Yeah, that was like one of
my favorite TV shows and I thatwas kind of where I throw the inspiration
from. But yeah, I'm soexcited, so cute. Yeah, so
they're launching they we I guess Ican't say we because I mean I'm not
(17:59):
paid. Yeah you could say yeah. So so we're launching them tomorrow,
which is Friday for y'all, sotwo days ago for y'all. Um,
Earth Day, the twenty second,And um, there's totes, there's shirts.
Um we have there's like bundles whereyou can get like jewelry, tote
(18:21):
and a shirt or tote, jewelry, like there's there's a bunch of options
to choose from and they're they're socute. I I'm so excited. I
can't wait for everyone to see them. It is a little in addition too,
so we're only gonna get Yeah,there's not gonna be that ready,
right, but yeah, I'm justsuper excited. I can't wait. And
we have done we have done acollaboration. Um I should yes, I
(18:45):
should also mention that Hannah does ontop of you know, paying me for
the work I do. Um,she also part of the donations go directly
to our rescue, UM, whichis amazing. Again. Um, you
know people, uh, you know, if you're a new listener, you
may not know that I run afrog rescue um, which is yeah,
(19:07):
which is where I am obsessed withfrogs um because we're literally sitting here looking
at like we're sitting in a roomof twenty frogs. Um. It's amazing.
Yeah. I have like a fourhundred and five hundred square foot apartment
and they are everywhere, on topof each other, on top of me.
It's fun. Um. But yeah, I so I run a rescue
(19:27):
and we actually meant because I mean, yeah, I reach out to and
I was like, hey, Ilove this, um, like do you
want to like work together? Andit was amazing. We did a Christmas
sweater, the Christmas sweater holidays.It was so cute. The sweaters were
such good quality, and I feellike we're gonna have to do something like
(19:49):
well absolutely sure for Halloween too,and like my holidays. Yeah, so
amazing and it's so cute and youyou design everything yourself. I mean I
think Oriyan, my artist did thesweat did Yeah, he did a couple
of the hoodies and the sweaters.Um, and he's amazing too. Yeah.
Oh gosh, yeah. Ryan shoutout to Orian's belt art Um.
(20:11):
He does literally all of my stuff, all of my graphics and stuff.
So he's amazing. Um, butthe sweaters they sold like crazy. Yeah,
we sold so many of those sweaters. It was just awesome to see
the TikTok videos of posting and justwearing the sweater. I like, it's
cool to think about that all themore names are out there in the world.
(20:33):
Yeah, people, people, Iknow. That's my favorite part of
March is you know, like I'llget pictures and like, oh you're wearing
Yeah, all right, So weare going to take a quick break,
but we'll be right back with Hannahvan Overbeak from Project. We all know
(21:06):
that a dog is man's best friend, won't Why stop there? We think
that all pets make our lives alittle easier, whether it's a cat,
gecko, or even a horse.We want to learn what makes your pets
so special to you. Maybe theyhave an eccentric personality or even give good
cuddles. Whatever it is, wewant to hear about it. After all,
(21:26):
our pets deserve a moment in thespotlight. Why not share an interesting
story about your pet with our hostpet coach Janelle Young. No matter how
big or small, we'd love tohear from you on the Pet Owner Diary
show. We're looking for the nextpet celebrity superstar, or that unique animal
story for TV and radio. Ifyou believe your pet has the IT factor,
then call our pet line at fouroh seven nine oh six fifty seven
(21:49):
twelve or email us at pet ownerDiary at gmail dot com. The possibilities
are endless. Maybe you and yourpet will be our next featured weekly guest
on TV or radio. Let's giveour pets the attention they deserve. Welcome
(22:21):
backpat family. We are here withHannah van Overbeak from Project Pollywog, a
foundation, a store that helps frogspecies and has amazing jewelry. And yeah,
just is overall absolutely amazing. I'ma little biased because I literally work
(22:42):
for her, but I would sayit's pretty good. I agree, I
agree, I'll yeah. So,okay, I want to get into why
your mission is so important, becauseI don't think it be a lot of
people actually understand how important amphibians arefor us. How like, how would
(23:03):
you if you know, if wewere in a classroom setting and I sat
you down, I said, okay, why are frogs important? What would
you give me your pitch? Okay, So the reason that frogs are so
important is because they literally control theinsect environment that we have, and they
prevent a lot of diseases from beingspread. So, for example, one
(23:23):
of the main things in a frog'sdiet is the bugs, the protein,
mosquitos, all of these other littlebugs that actually carry diseases like salmonella or
all these other diseases that they canactually transfer to us. So by having
frogs around, we actually are cuttingthat down all of those just awful bugs
(23:45):
and disease A pest how do wewant to call them that? Yeah,
exactly the best. Yeah. Andso like one of the main things that
is kind of causing frogs to belike yeah to going saying in mass numbers,
yeah, is mostly because of likedeforestation, habitat loss, all of
(24:07):
these things like that, and thoseare just like, yeah, those are
those are the main things. Yeah. Well, and I think another big
part a lot of people don't understandthat frogs are an indicator species. Yes,
So if you're you know, youhave a pond in your backyard or
like a creek, and you knowyou've had frogs there for a very long
time, and all of a suddenthey're gone, You're not seeing any frogs
(24:30):
um and you know, you haven'theard anything about you know, them dying
off from fungus or anything like that. It can be an indicator that your
water is polluted or you know there'ssomething happening with the ecosystem and without amphibians.
Um. You know, because pollutionsometimes it's obvious, but a lot
(24:51):
of the times it's not. That'swhy they have like those water testers who
go out there and test for pollutions. Yeah. So yeah, frogs are
like a natural water quality tester andyeah, so there's this is very important
from that, but the pest thingalso is a big thing. Um.
And they're very good at eating invasivespecies as well. Um. You know
(25:15):
all amphibians are great at controlling populationslike that. Yeah. Um. They're
also a part of the food chainfor many other animals. So you know
you've probably learned it in like yourbiology in your biology class. You know,
if you take one one animal outfrom the pyramid, you know,
(25:36):
whole thing crashes. So it's veryvery important, um do you So you
mentioned some things, but do youknow like the major issue that frogs are
having right now and like what iskilling them? Yeah, so what's killing
them right now? Again is justa habitat loss there. I talked with
Mark from the Amphibian Foundation a fewdays ago and he was telling me how
(25:57):
there's only like there's like barely anyreal habitats left for like, for example,
mainly what we're focusing on right nowis the Georgia gopher frog. Yeah.
Um, and so like almost alltheir habitats are gone. And so
the one they actually are working ina in a national park. Um.
And that's like where they're preserving yet, because that's where one of the last
(26:22):
habitats is, right for the Georgiabelpher frogs. Right, So that's like
a main thing is just like developmentin pollution and not having livable environments anymore.
I think, yeah, have youso have you heard of kitrid or
citrid? Have you ever? No? Okay, so we'll get into that.
So and I mean a lot ofpeople don't know this is happening,
(26:44):
but that so kitrid tu, Ican't I cannot say the full but I
say it as kitrid, but otherpeople pronounce it as citrid. However you
want to pronounce it, um.But I was just hundred it. So
it is a fungus and it happensbecause of pollution and rising water temperatures and
(27:11):
you know, loss of other speciesthat are keeping it down. And it
is a fungus that affects their skinand essentially it will affect the slime coat
and it will make it so thatthey cannot absorb any nutrients or electrolytes or
anything like that from the water thatthey're in. So it basically kind of
(27:32):
dehydrates them to death. And itis super effective, especially in hotter places,
and as you know global warming,as the world heats up, it's
a lot easier for it to spreadaround. So really the biggest thing right
now, I think we've lost may. I think part of the ninety species
(27:56):
that the world has lost, Ithink forty percent of them are because of
kidrid or cidrid. So and it'svery very painful. You know, if
you they can't get any nutrients intotheir body, so they're starving, they
can't get water into their body.It leaves them with really bad sores.
(28:17):
They're shedding a lot because they're tryingto get whatever is on their skin off,
and it's very painful and it happensvery fast. And kidra can take
out like hundreds of frogs in oneday. It can take you, it's
taken out whole ecosystems. And soone of the main projects that Save the
(28:38):
Frogs, which is another amazing foundation. Their main goal is to stop kaidrid
because there is no cure for itright now. They've been working on it
for a couple of years, andI think I've heard that you know,
we're getting close, but we're definitelynot not there yet. You mentioned too
(29:00):
that you sent a couple of yourfrogs to the research centers. Yeah,
so we were dealing with a wholedifferent fungus. What happened, Yeah,
so we were dealing with a differentkind of fungus. It was actually a
fungus that was found in fish andit's only been seen in fish before.
And so I can't go into alot of the details because it is a
(29:21):
research study. We were are SLASH, We're working with Colorado State University,
and they were taking tests on ourfrogs and it was because someone so I'm
I'm not mad at this person,but someone had donated a fish tank to
us, and they kind of neglectedto tell us that all of their fish
(29:44):
had passed in it and from likesome mysterious whatever, sir, And so
you know, I would bleach itand use all these BET approved chemicals on
it and everything like that, andit's just such a resilient fungus that it
would not go like it didn't,so we we ended up we ended up
(30:06):
having to just completely smash the tankand toss it away so that no one
could use it. Yeah, andwe transferred our followers on us a new
tank, which is amazing. UmAnd yeah, so no, we're all
good. We haven't had a casesince December. UM, so I wow,
I think we're doing pretty good.Amazing. Yeah, yeah, but
(30:26):
that one's more rare. It's definitelyUM you know, something that really we
were dealing with. And then afew like pet chains and stuff. But
I won't, I can't. Ican't talk about it. We can't talk
about it yet. Wait the reportcomes out. But today no. So
yeah, but you know that wasmore of a UM I guess you could
(30:51):
say localized UM fungus. But thiskatra is found on every plane of the
world. Like it's you know,you can find it in It's very big
in the US, but also inUM like Costa Rica and the jungles and
stuff like that. Yeah, it'sand it like I said, it can
(31:11):
take out frogs like it's like nothing. So that is a very large reason.
And I know the Amphibian Foundation doesa little bit of that as well.
Um, but they're definitely they're they'refocused in the US, so you
know, they're they're trying to savethe species that we have here. Yeah,
starting in the home and then yeah, yeah, well, I mean
(31:33):
you can only do so much,you know. Yeah, there's that quote
that's like, you know, you'renever gonna if you want to change the
whole world, like you have tochange one person's world or yeah yeah,
yeah, it's from like the Bibleor something like that. Um, but
but yeah, so you know,and I think you know why your mission
(31:55):
is so amazing is because you youunderstand that, but you still have like
big old dream. Yeah. Imean, yeah, I guess we the
ultimate goal because I was again Iwas, this is kind of not that
great news, I guess. Buta lot of the reason why endangered species
are never taken off the list isbecause of politics. Yes, very much
(32:15):
political. Yeah, and so Iknow, eventually what we'd really like to
do is kind of take this toopolitics, take this two policies, yeah,
and kind of legislative Yeah, liketo a legislative level where we can
actually kind of petition for these thingsto be done and taken care of and
get more attention, because it's justas important as every other issue that right,
(32:37):
Yeah, and I mean a poloiticismanare probably like, oh it's a
frog, Like yeah, it's likeokay, well we care, and so
do these twenty thousand other people likeright, that's at all. We're gonna
take a quick break, but we'llbe right back with Hannah from Project Poliogue.
(33:09):
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(33:29):
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love At navopets dot com, youcan spoil your pet with goodness, treat
your pet like they treat you.Welcome back to the pet Owner Diary Show.
(34:32):
My name is Tay and I'm herewith Panna van Overbeek from Project Polywog.
And so we were talking a bitof why frogs are important and I
want to go back to your missiona little bit. What So you are
focusing on two frogs right now?Which which frognis are you focusing on?
So the first one is the CaliforniaYellow I Get frog. And the reason
(34:57):
I chose that frog in particular isbecause I grew up in cal Bornia.
I'm just born and raised there,and so I really wanted to kind of
help my environment almost like like helpmy backyard. Yeah that makes these That
makes a lot of sense. Yeah, So I chose that one. And
then the other one that I chosewas the Georgia Go for frog. And
the reason I chose to Georgia.Go for frog was because it's number three
(35:20):
on the most Endangered Amphibian list,and so in my head, I'm kind
of like, Okay, well,if it's that high, then that means
it's probably really really to like beinggone. Yeah, literally just like not
being able to see these frogs anymore. And to me, it's like thinking
about my future generations, like mykids and their kids and their kids not
being able to see Like it's almostlike the dinosaurs, you know what I
(35:43):
mean, or like there were generationsbefore us that saw the dinosaurs and and
they're they're gone, right, andwe don't have that anymore, and so
like the thought of that would justit just makes me really sad. And
so that's yeah, that's why Ichose that one too, because they're more
close to being stinked. Yeah,I know, I mean that makes a
lot of sense. Like, youknow, we have had animals in the
(36:06):
past, even even within the lasttwenty thirty years, where there are none
of them in the world where youknow, they've either been hunted to death
or you know, fun stuff likethat. So you know, I understand,
like you know, when you havekids, you want to be able
to be like look, this isa frog. Like we have these when
(36:29):
I was your age, and Ihelp them yea, and yeah, I
think that's really sweet. And sowhen you purchase, so you adopt a
frog. Yes, so you arejust so cute, I know, I
just I love it. Of Soeach of our orders comes with well,
each of our jewelry orders, yeah, jewelry only. Yeah, it comes
(36:51):
with a adoption certificate. And inthe adoption certificate you have kind of like
a little spot where you can giveit a name. You can give it
a day, which is normally likethe day you receive it. Yeah,
And the idea is that you getto like name your jewelry piece because there
are frogs and every jewelry piece.Yeah. And so we also include a
metal Benefactor card inside of each one, which is like so nice quality.
(37:15):
That's crazy if you so, itreminds me of younger people. You'll probably
understand this when you used to getPokemon cards and sometimes they would have like
the metal really fancy ones or likekind of holographic or like just gold.
And it reminds me exactly. Yeah, it's really cool. That was told.
(37:36):
That was exactly what I was inspiredby. The Pokemon cards and so
I designed them kind of with thatin mind, because the ideas we want
them to go into your wallets,we want them your purses because whenever you're
wearing your jewelry, people will seethat. And it's such a unique interesting
piece that a lot of people kindof comment on it. And whenever you
get comments on it, the ideais to talk about the frogs and bring
(37:59):
yeah, like actually this next benefitedYeah exactly. Then you can bring it
out and then people can say like, oh, okay, so it's Project
Pollilog. This is what we're tryingto do. We're trying to reduce the
amount of endangered species in the world. So, yeah, I never found
but it is like a business cardthat last forever. Literally starts exactly like
a business card too, right,And so okay, So if people want
(38:22):
to go to the shop and youknow, look look us up, where
can they go drop all the socials? Yeah, romo, So you can
go to www. Dot Project Polywog, which is p O l l i
wog dot com, or you canfind us on Instagram at protect Polywog.
(38:45):
Yeah different, Yeah, I've mendedthat must take before protect. It's a
used to the project. But nowit's protect polyU, so it's like,
you know, protecting polywogs, likethat's what it is at protect polywog um.
Same thing with TikTok to protect pollwog. You can also find us on
Facebook at protect Polylogum and yeah,those are kind of that's where you can
(39:06):
that's where you can go if you'reinterested in checking it out. Yeah,
and you know, the website hasthe mission, it has um you know,
the frogs that we're looking to conserve. Um. You can read a
little bit about our rescue there.Um. There's everything on there and there
are so many adorable items. Again, Hannah pretty much designs all of them,
so they have a lot of lovein them. They're very very adorable,
(39:30):
and they're also I've seen a lotof adults buying them for like their
kids or like grandparents buying them fortheir kids, which I think is really
really sweet. So if you're lookingfor a birthday present, um famous present.
Yes, and the gift wrap isright now like during it changes with
every season, and thank you cardschanged too, which is yeah, they're
(39:53):
really cute. Yeah, so wehave so I guess I'll it's been a
little bit about the packaging experience.But we have the these thank you cards
that are actually collectible because the ideawas I designed them to help like reduce
waste in a way, because Iknow that whenever I order something, there's
there's almost always a thank you card. Yeah, but it's never like super
cute to where I want to likehang it on my wall, like do
(40:15):
not just shade anybody, But likethey're just not I wouldn't. It's a
card, like it's yeah, exactlylike I wouldn't put it on my wall.
But when I was designing my thinkycards, I was like, Okay,
I want people to actually like putthese on their walls, right,
and so I design them like littlepieces of art, so they're they're really
Yeah, they changed again. Theychange eight times a year, and each
(40:36):
of those cards are collectible, soyou can actually collect all the thank you
cards and then send us a pictureof them at the end of the year
to get Yeah, it's very it'svery much as they're a waste. I
mean, if you're like me,where you save everything, like they come
with with these little pouches. Allthe jewelry comes in these pouches. The
same project Polly Wog and I loveusing them. I've used them for gifts
before and people are like, oh, project, it's so cute and like
(40:59):
it's actually it's actually not from them. I just use pet because I poured
everything and I prouse everything. Butum, they're they're perfect for presents.
Yeah, and everything's recycled and cooltoo, so like the papers are recycled,
the bags. We ship it inour sustainable recyclable compostable too perfect.
I get stick it out there withthe veggie's. Thank yeah, so,
(41:21):
thank you so much Hannah for hangingout with me. I know we see
each other like every single day,but this is a bit it's different than
before. Bad um. I hopeeveryone enjoyed this episode. Again, if
you want to see Project Pollywog,it's Project polliwog dot com and all the
(41:42):
rest of the social media's are protectPolliwog and we'll see you back here,
same time, same place, nextweek. Thanks so much too. Yeah,
thank you for having me. Ihad such a great time. Amazing.
Bye y'all, thanks for listening.Thank you for joining us on pet
Owner Diary. Make sure to visitour website pet Ownerdiary dot com, where
(42:05):
you can sign up for our newsletter. View show highlights and download each episode
via SoundCloud. Make sure to subscribeto the show on your favorite podcast app
too, so you and your petnever miss an episode. Pet Family.
If you like what you hear,please share on your social media and tell
a friend to tune in on behalfof America's Pet Owner Coach Janelle Young.
(42:27):
We wish you love, peace andharmony with your pet. We'll catch you
in the next episode.
Welcome to the Pet Owner Diary Podcast, a show about helping you become a
better pet parent. In each episode, we deliver raw, honest, funny,
and insightful advice on how to bea great pet parent for any type
of pet. Now here's your host, America's Pet Owner Coach, Janelle Young,
a pet family. Welcome back tothe pet Owner Diary Show. My
(00:24):
name is Tashuemaker, and I willbe your co host for the next hour
or so. Today's episode is goingto be very laid back, very chill.
It's been a long week, sowe're just gonna sit back and have
some fun. I have held itoff long enough, friends, I cannot
physically go any longer without talking aboutfrogs. So today episode is going to
(00:48):
be about frogs, but I promiseto keep it interesting and fun for the
people who are like not about frogs. So over the last fifty years,
more than five hundred amphibian species haveexperienced extreme population decline. Ninety of those
species have gone completely extinct as apart of the sixth mass extinction period that
(01:11):
we're currently in. According to areport from the United Nations, forty percent
of the world's amphibian species are inthe threatened status when it comes to the
level of extinction. Fifteen of thesespecies live and are native to the US.
I want you all to meet avery close friend of mine, Hannah
(01:33):
van Overbeek, the founder and creativemind behind Project Pollywog. Polywog aims to
help endangered frog species by selling adorablefrog themed jewelry and other froggy items.
Hey, Hannah, how are youdoing. Thank you so much for hosting
me today. I'm honestly super thrilledto even be on this show. Super
(01:53):
grateful. This will be so funto talk about frogs with you. Yes,
and of family. Hannah's actually atmy house. She is sitting right
next to me, like I canlook at her. So if they can
touch you, yes, you know, we could like touch her what we
want, but we're not gonna dothat, yea. And yeah, so
(02:14):
we're sharing one Mike, So it'sa little bit like Lady in the tramp
Spaghetti scene, but like with twogood friends. But Hannah is also my
boss. I am her executive assistantwhatever that means, but if basically means
that I answer emails and I takeyou pictures of her whenever she needs me
to do that, and so Hannah, please go ahead and introduce yourself to
(02:38):
everyone. Tell us a little bitabout you. Introduce yourself to the class.
Well, my name is Hannah,as tag introduced, I am obsessed
with frogs, which is how meand tame at about a year ago.
So she actually came across one ofmy ads that I was running on Instagram
and she was like, Oh mygosh, it's fucking jewelry, Like that's
(03:00):
cute, and she reached out andwe became like really fast friends after that
because it was just like both ofour missions aligned and our brands really syncd
up well together. But yeah,I started Project Polylogue in May. It's
almost going to be a year oldactually coming up here, but I started
in May of last year just becauseI felt like I needed to develop a
(03:24):
deeper purpose, like actually make adifference in the world. My background is
in business, and that is kindof where I guess how I found my
career. My careers in business andthe companies that i'd been running prior never
really like felt deep to me.They never felt like I was actually making
(03:45):
a big difference in the world,especially for our planet and our environment,
which I do care about. Somy love of frogs and jewelry and business
kind of just all combined together tocreate Project Polylog. A huge part of
the reason I started Project Polylog aswell was because I was kind of transitioning
to a time in my life whereI felt like I was losing my childhood.
(04:08):
I felt like, you know,I'm growing up and and it's I
don't know, you start to seelife sort of black and white and it
loses the color. I mean.Yeah, So I kind of designed all
of the packaging and everything around childhood, like with obviously like with an older
(04:28):
twist to it. So like thejewelry is very I guess minimal, but
still really cute. But yeah,so every every box comes infuse with childhood
and the adoption certificates everything. Yeah. So that's a little bit about me
and Project Pollywog. Yeah, andso Project Polylog. You've said this to
me before your mission or like adream you have for Polylog is to you
(04:54):
know, hopefully help every species offrog one day and like maybe even say
every species. That amazing. Idefinitely. We actually just recently partnered with
the Amphibian Foundation, which is locatedin Georgia. They're one of the companies
that we weel companies one of thefoundations, they're one of the foundations that
(05:14):
we donate to, and they're actuallyactively out there repopulating frogs, saving them.
They do all sorts of other amphibianslike salamanders and all the other ones.
Yeah, we love all amphibians,not just proboms. Yeah we're a
little biased, but we love themall exactly. But a lot of what
they need is they just need likesupplies, they need material, they need
(05:35):
to pay their people, and sothat's where Project Pollilog comes in and kind
of helps provide the resources for them, yea, saving the frogs. So
ideally we'd like to help them branchout all across the United States because their
goal is to create repopulation centers likeall over with different species of amphibians.
(05:56):
Yeah. Super cool. Yeah,so yeah, the Amphibian Foundation is based
in the US, but no,they're definitely I've heard talks of them wanting
to stretch out and stuff like that. So, um, they're an amazing,
amazing foundation. UM and the factthat they you know, have someone
that um can help them with likemonthly donations is amazing because everyone there is
(06:16):
so great. UM. So shoutout to the Amphibian Foundation amazing. Um.
Yeah, and so Polywog currently,Um so you're selling jewelry, you're
selling you know, prints, stufflike that, Like how would you describe
what Polywog kind of specializes in orcells if you can't, I know,
(06:40):
there's a wide range. I meanhonestly, a majority of the products are
the jewelry. So I would definitelysay Patrick Polywog is more of a jewelry
line, right, um so,but yeah, I mean everything has frogs
in it, so of course.Yeah, And like I just I noticed
too, like when I when Iwas starting, there was like no frog
(07:01):
jewelry like frogenine jewelry, and theones that we're out there were just like
not really my vibey cute little nolittle attacking exitly so we'd see, you
know that the pier or gift shopsnot knocking them. Those are great too,
push back the hustles, but butnot not the trip I want to
(07:23):
wear. But yeah, so Iso when I designed my jewelry line,
it was kind of like, oh, I want to like make it cute,
I want to make animals. Sowe use a lot of things,
like we use lots of lily pads. We use frogs in every design,
We use mushrooms, flowers, likepretty much everything nature related. It's very
it's very cottage. Yeah, that'syeah. And I mean for you know
(07:45):
the older people that are listening whoare like, what the hell's cottage court?
Um, it's so it's kind ofa thing. A lot of gen
Z, I would say, istrying to revert back to like living in
a cute little cottage with like animalsand flowers all around, and like wearing
pretty dresses and stuff like that andgreen gables. Yes, very much,
(08:05):
very much so. Um. Soit's a lot of that. So it's
very But the jewelry is beautiful,like it's I mean, I didn't think
I was a gold person until Itried on Polyologus jewelry and then I was
like, okay, I have toswitch all of my jewelry because this is
like the color um. But theydo silver as well. Yeah, we
(08:28):
branched out after we got a coupleof requests. We started with gold and
then we branched out to silver.Yeah. And so they're they're also very
durable, I've noticed. So whatdo y'all use to make them? Yes,
so we actually just switched it over. So our newest our guest,
our newest restock is going to beall stainless steel base. So the reason
(08:50):
we chose stainless steel over like brass, seeing all of these other ones,
is because what happens is and I'msure you'll are very familiar with them,
especially yeah, especially it tarnishes,it turns your skin green. It's not
it doesn't like work in water.It's just super sensitive. Um. And
so we chose the stainless steel basebecause it doesn't do that. Yeah,
(09:13):
and it lasts a lot longer,and it doesn't tarnishes easily, and I
mean it's just a great material.And for the gold, the gold ones
they're actually gold plated with fourteen caregoold. Yeah, so they're fancy.
Yeah, they're here, they last. And then the silver ones are stainless
steel okay yeah, and no stainlesssteel. When I think of stainless steel,
(09:35):
I think of like piercings because yeah, you know, um, so
they're they're healthy, they're not goingto turn your green. Yeah yeah,
it'll be okay, um, andthey really last. I mean I have
the tiny frog on a lily padone. Um, yeah, I have
my two frogs kissing in a heartright now. Um, but I have
(09:58):
had that one for I think sinceOctober. Yeah, I would say that,
yeah, like any Christmas collaboration.Yeah, and it's like perfect.
It has not had any issues.Um, I did tangle the train a
little bit, but it's fine.I got it undone. Um so yeah,
no, they definitely last and they'resuper cute, super simple. Um
(10:20):
and I think it's really good ifyou're like wanting fancy jewelry that is not
fancy, or like you want tolook fancy like I wear mine. If
I'm going to an event in likea pretty dress, I'll throw the monk
because they're simple, they're easy,and um yeah they're they're adorable. All
right. So we do have totake a quick break, but we'll be
(10:41):
right back with Hannah from Project Polliwogat Nava Pets. We know how important
your furry companions are, so wewant to help keep them happy and healthy.
(11:07):
Our organic hemp products are especially formulatedto enhance the well being of your
beloved pet. But don't worry.Our hemp supplements don't contain any of the
psychedelic stuff, so your animal willreceive all the health benefits and still be
the pet you know and love.Your furry friend is sure to enjoy the
organic pet Hemp Tincture, which infusesanti inflammatory plant properties and omegafatty acids,
(11:31):
providing for a more mobile and energeticpet, while also assisting with any chronic
pain or medical conditions your pet maybe experiencing. Our hemp products also give
a natural calming effect, perfect forthe continuous barkers or those stressed out cats.
We also offer a range of flavorsincluding bacon, peanut, butter,
and salmon. What's not to loveAt navapets dot com, you can spoil
(11:56):
your pet with goodness, treat yourpet like they treat you. Welcome back
(12:16):
that family. We are here withHannah van Overbeak of Project Polylog. Polylog
the way the Brits say frog orcat pole is spelled p o l l
i g or excuse me, pO l l i w o G.
I can spell I went to school. Um and yeah, project exactly what
(12:39):
you think it would be spelt.And you guys can go check out the
website Project Pollywog dot com. Um, there's a bunch of cute stuff over
in the shop. You can readabout Hannah's mission and all that fun stuff.
Um, so we were talking aboutthe jewelry, and I think the
(13:01):
the other thing that sounds really reallywell is your prints. Like when I
am, I do the customer service, so I see I get to see
like all the orders and stuff,and people are constantly ordering the frog collage
kits. Yeah those are man,you know. I when I when I
launched those, the wall art kits, I originally didn't expect them to do
(13:26):
so well. I was kind oflike, oh, this is like a
king little side product. Yeah.Reason yeah, Like the reason I even
put them up there to begin withwas because I literally made it for myself,
like I made it for my wallbecause I saw them all over TikTok
and I was like, I wantYeah, well, I mean that's that's
good. Like if you can likeit, if you like your product,
that's a good sign. Yeah,if you know, But like, how
(13:48):
do you do it? Yeah?Though, I totally yeah, I'm all
about designing stuff that I would actuallyuse. But yeah, I launched those
and like everybody just loved them.And I actually made them by combing through
like tons of vintage articles like magazines, all of these different things and then
editing them making them look how Iwant them to look, kind of page
(14:11):
and cute, and so that's howI made them. And yeah, I
mean they just popped off. Peoplelove them so yeah. Well, and
I mean they're so eat. Soit's you have never heard of a collage
wall or have no idea what we'retalking about. Collage walls are basically I
mean, they're so easy to make. You literally just take art prints,
you know, literally anything you want. I have them all over my house.
(14:35):
I love them. If you're amaximalist like me, they're great and
you literally just stick them to thewall. And you know, Hannah sells
these kits which makes it so easy, so you don't have to print off
anything yourself, and you can chooselike some if you want sticky tech or
(14:56):
putty, you know whatever, youcall it, the blue the wall,
a little blue wall putty that liketeachers use all the time. Um,
and they're so easy a stick upand they do not the putty is so
great because it does not take thepaint off through your walls. Yep.
I have used tape before, Ihave used pushpans before. Those are a
miss. Not render friendly, notrender somebody at all. So yeah,
(15:20):
and then you also have So thereis there's one thing that we do want
to talk about, and that isa new product coming in a new kind
of collaboration. Could you tell uswhat's going down? I think tomorrow.
Yeah, actually it'll be it'll beFriday for y'all, but tomorrow's Friday for
(15:41):
us. So yeah, firstday launch. So actually I was on TikTok and
this one account popped up on myfor you page, and as it does,
yeah, yeah, and this guyNick was on there talking about his
sustainable clothing brand and I saw thatand I was like, oh my gosh.
(16:03):
The style, like the designs,like everything was so retro, like
very very like early days Mickey Mouseflip note type of feeling right, and
I love that art style. Andso I was like, oh my gosh,
sustainable que clothes, Like the colorsare adorable. And I mean the
reason it's sustainable is because all ofhis clothing, totebags, phone cases,
(16:26):
everything is one biodegradable, yeah,two recycled, recycled um. And it's
just it's crazy. I mean,like you'd think that the clothes would be
really uncomfortable, like yeah, they'reliterally so soft, and I just I
love him. So I reached outto him and I was like, hey,
Nick, like, nice to meetyou. I say, this is
(16:48):
great archer. Oh yeah, Cher, this great archer. Yeah, Nick's
Knicks brand is great archer. Uhand yeah. So I reached out to
him and we connected. We hoppedonto a zoom call. We talked about
a collaboration. And if you canbelieve this, Nick is nineteen years old.
He's nineteen. I'm older than allof you, but I'm gonna out.
(17:11):
This is what I do. Iout people when they come here.
Hand. It's only twenty, soit's fine. Everyone knows my age.
I've said it multiple times now.So we little babies. We're just trying
to figure out the world. Butyeah, so we did this clab and
I designed the art. We isso cute. If you'll like, if
you'all like a book series Frog andToad, it reminds me of that,
(17:36):
but very like like Frog and Toadif they were like seventies sixty. I
actually was inspired by Over the Garden. Yeah, that was like one of
my favorite TV shows and I thatwas kind of where I throw the inspiration
from. But yeah, I'm soexcited, so cute. Yeah, so
they're launching they we I guess Ican't say we because I mean I'm not
(17:59):
paid. Yeah you could say yeah. So so we're launching them tomorrow,
which is Friday for y'all, sotwo days ago for y'all. Um,
Earth Day, the twenty second,And um, there's totes, there's shirts.
Um we have there's like bundles whereyou can get like jewelry, tote
(18:21):
and a shirt or tote, jewelry, like there's there's a bunch of options
to choose from and they're they're socute. I I'm so excited. I
can't wait for everyone to see them. It is a little in addition too,
so we're only gonna get Yeah,there's not gonna be that ready,
right, but yeah, I'm justsuper excited. I can't wait. And
we have done we have done acollaboration. Um I should yes, I
(18:45):
should also mention that Hannah does ontop of you know, paying me for
the work I do. Um,she also part of the donations go directly
to our rescue, UM, whichis amazing. Again. Um, you
know people, uh, you know, if you're a new listener, you
may not know that I run afrog rescue um, which is yeah,
(19:07):
which is where I am obsessed withfrogs um because we're literally sitting here looking
at like we're sitting in a roomof twenty frogs. Um. It's amazing.
Yeah. I have like a fourhundred and five hundred square foot apartment
and they are everywhere, on topof each other, on top of me.
It's fun. Um. But yeah, I so I run a rescue
(19:27):
and we actually meant because I mean, yeah, I reach out to and
I was like, hey, Ilove this, um, like do you
want to like work together? Andit was amazing. We did a Christmas
sweater, the Christmas sweater holidays.It was so cute. The sweaters were
such good quality, and I feellike we're gonna have to do something like
(19:49):
well absolutely sure for Halloween too,and like my holidays. Yeah, so
amazing and it's so cute and youyou design everything yourself. I mean I
think Oriyan, my artist did thesweat did Yeah, he did a couple
of the hoodies and the sweaters.Um, and he's amazing too. Yeah.
Oh gosh, yeah. Ryan shoutout to Orian's belt art Um.
(20:11):
He does literally all of my stuff, all of my graphics and stuff.
So he's amazing. Um, butthe sweaters they sold like crazy. Yeah,
we sold so many of those sweaters. It was just awesome to see
the TikTok videos of posting and justwearing the sweater. I like, it's
cool to think about that all themore names are out there in the world.
(20:33):
Yeah, people, people, Iknow. That's my favorite part of
March is you know, like I'llget pictures and like, oh you're wearing
Yeah, all right, So weare going to take a quick break,
but we'll be right back with Hannahvan Overbeak from Project. We all know
(21:06):
that a dog is man's best friend, won't Why stop there? We think
that all pets make our lives alittle easier, whether it's a cat,
gecko, or even a horse.We want to learn what makes your pets
so special to you. Maybe theyhave an eccentric personality or even give good
cuddles. Whatever it is, wewant to hear about it. After all,
(21:26):
our pets deserve a moment in thespotlight. Why not share an interesting
story about your pet with our hostpet coach Janelle Young. No matter how
big or small, we'd love tohear from you on the Pet Owner Diary
show. We're looking for the nextpet celebrity superstar, or that unique animal
story for TV and radio. Ifyou believe your pet has the IT factor,
then call our pet line at fouroh seven nine oh six fifty seven
(21:49):
twelve or email us at pet ownerDiary at gmail dot com. The possibilities
are endless. Maybe you and yourpet will be our next featured weekly guest
on TV or radio. Let's giveour pets the attention they deserve. Welcome
(22:21):
backpat family. We are here withHannah van Overbeak from Project Pollywog, a
foundation, a store that helps frogspecies and has amazing jewelry. And yeah,
just is overall absolutely amazing. I'ma little biased because I literally work
(22:42):
for her, but I would sayit's pretty good. I agree, I
agree, I'll yeah. So,okay, I want to get into why
your mission is so important, becauseI don't think it be a lot of
people actually understand how important amphibians arefor us. How like, how would
(23:03):
you if you know, if wewere in a classroom setting and I sat
you down, I said, okay, why are frogs important? What would
you give me your pitch? Okay, So the reason that frogs are so
important is because they literally control theinsect environment that we have, and they
prevent a lot of diseases from beingspread. So, for example, one
(23:23):
of the main things in a frog'sdiet is the bugs, the protein,
mosquitos, all of these other littlebugs that actually carry diseases like salmonella or
all these other diseases that they canactually transfer to us. So by having
frogs around, we actually are cuttingthat down all of those just awful bugs
(23:45):
and disease A pest how do wewant to call them that? Yeah,
exactly the best. Yeah. Andso like one of the main things that
is kind of causing frogs to belike yeah to going saying in mass numbers,
yeah, is mostly because of likedeforestation, habitat loss, all of
(24:07):
these things like that, and thoseare just like, yeah, those are
those are the main things. Yeah. Well, and I think another big
part a lot of people don't understandthat frogs are an indicator species. Yes,
So if you're you know, youhave a pond in your backyard or
like a creek, and you knowyou've had frogs there for a very long
time, and all of a suddenthey're gone, You're not seeing any frogs
(24:30):
um and you know, you haven'theard anything about you know, them dying
off from fungus or anything like that. It can be an indicator that your
water is polluted or you know there'ssomething happening with the ecosystem and without amphibians.
Um. You know, because pollutionsometimes it's obvious, but a lot
(24:51):
of the times it's not. That'swhy they have like those water testers who
go out there and test for pollutions. Yeah. So yeah, frogs are
like a natural water quality tester andyeah, so there's this is very important
from that, but the pest thingalso is a big thing. Um.
And they're very good at eating invasivespecies as well. Um. You know
(25:15):
all amphibians are great at controlling populationslike that. Yeah. Um. They're
also a part of the food chainfor many other animals. So you know
you've probably learned it in like yourbiology in your biology class. You know,
if you take one one animal outfrom the pyramid, you know,
(25:36):
whole thing crashes. So it's veryvery important, um do you So you
mentioned some things, but do youknow like the major issue that frogs are
having right now and like what iskilling them? Yeah, so what's killing
them right now? Again is justa habitat loss there. I talked with
Mark from the Amphibian Foundation a fewdays ago and he was telling me how
(25:57):
there's only like there's like barely anyreal habitats left for like, for example,
mainly what we're focusing on right nowis the Georgia gopher frog. Yeah.
Um, and so like almost alltheir habitats are gone. And so
the one they actually are working ina in a national park. Um.
And that's like where they're preserving yet, because that's where one of the last
(26:22):
habitats is, right for the Georgiabelpher frogs. Right, So that's like
a main thing is just like developmentin pollution and not having livable environments anymore.
I think, yeah, have youso have you heard of kitrid or
citrid? Have you ever? No? Okay, so we'll get into that.
So and I mean a lot ofpeople don't know this is happening,
(26:44):
but that so kitrid tu, Ican't I cannot say the full but I
say it as kitrid, but otherpeople pronounce it as citrid. However you
want to pronounce it, um.But I was just hundred it. So
it is a fungus and it happensbecause of pollution and rising water temperatures and
(27:11):
you know, loss of other speciesthat are keeping it down. And it
is a fungus that affects their skinand essentially it will affect the slime coat
and it will make it so thatthey cannot absorb any nutrients or electrolytes or
anything like that from the water thatthey're in. So it basically kind of
(27:32):
dehydrates them to death. And itis super effective, especially in hotter places,
and as you know global warming,as the world heats up, it's
a lot easier for it to spreadaround. So really the biggest thing right
now, I think we've lost may. I think part of the ninety species
(27:56):
that the world has lost, Ithink forty percent of them are because of
kidrid or cidrid. So and it'svery very painful. You know, if
you they can't get any nutrients intotheir body, so they're starving, they
can't get water into their body.It leaves them with really bad sores.
(28:17):
They're shedding a lot because they're tryingto get whatever is on their skin off,
and it's very painful and it happensvery fast. And kidra can take
out like hundreds of frogs in oneday. It can take you, it's
taken out whole ecosystems. And soone of the main projects that Save the
(28:38):
Frogs, which is another amazing foundation. Their main goal is to stop kaidrid
because there is no cure for itright now. They've been working on it
for a couple of years, andI think I've heard that you know,
we're getting close, but we're definitelynot not there yet. You mentioned too
(29:00):
that you sent a couple of yourfrogs to the research centers. Yeah,
so we were dealing with a wholedifferent fungus. What happened, Yeah,
so we were dealing with a differentkind of fungus. It was actually a
fungus that was found in fish andit's only been seen in fish before.
And so I can't go into alot of the details because it is a
(29:21):
research study. We were are SLASH, We're working with Colorado State University,
and they were taking tests on ourfrogs and it was because someone so I'm
I'm not mad at this person,but someone had donated a fish tank to
us, and they kind of neglectedto tell us that all of their fish
(29:44):
had passed in it and from likesome mysterious whatever, sir, And so
you know, I would bleach itand use all these BET approved chemicals on
it and everything like that, andit's just such a resilient fungus that it
would not go like it didn't,so we we ended up we ended up
(30:06):
having to just completely smash the tankand toss it away so that no one
could use it. Yeah, andwe transferred our followers on us a new
tank, which is amazing. UmAnd yeah, so no, we're all
good. We haven't had a casesince December. UM, so I wow,
I think we're doing pretty good.Amazing. Yeah, yeah, but
(30:26):
that one's more rare. It's definitelyUM you know, something that really we
were dealing with. And then afew like pet chains and stuff. But
I won't, I can't. Ican't talk about it. We can't talk
about it yet. Wait the reportcomes out. But today no. So
yeah, but you know that wasmore of a UM I guess you could
(30:51):
say localized UM fungus. But thiskatra is found on every plane of the
world. Like it's you know,you can find it in It's very big
in the US, but also inUM like Costa Rica and the jungles and
stuff like that. Yeah, it'sand it like I said, it can
(31:11):
take out frogs like it's like nothing. So that is a very large reason.
And I know the Amphibian Foundation doesa little bit of that as well.
Um, but they're definitely they're they'refocused in the US, so you
know, they're they're trying to savethe species that we have here. Yeah,
starting in the home and then yeah, yeah, well, I mean
(31:33):
you can only do so much,you know. Yeah, there's that quote
that's like, you know, you'renever gonna if you want to change the
whole world, like you have tochange one person's world or yeah yeah,
yeah, it's from like the Bibleor something like that. Um, but
but yeah, so you know,and I think you know why your mission
(31:55):
is so amazing is because you youunderstand that, but you still have like
big old dream. Yeah. Imean, yeah, I guess we the
ultimate goal because I was again Iwas, this is kind of not that
great news, I guess. Buta lot of the reason why endangered species
are never taken off the list isbecause of politics. Yes, very much
(32:15):
political. Yeah, and so Iknow, eventually what we'd really like to
do is kind of take this toopolitics, take this two policies, yeah,
and kind of legislative Yeah, liketo a legislative level where we can
actually kind of petition for these thingsto be done and taken care of and
get more attention, because it's justas important as every other issue that right,
(32:37):
Yeah, and I mean a poloiticismanare probably like, oh it's a
frog, Like yeah, it's likeokay, well we care, and so
do these twenty thousand other people likeright, that's at all. We're gonna
take a quick break, but we'llbe right back with Hannah from Project Poliogue.
(33:09):
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your pet like they treat you.Welcome back to the pet Owner Diary Show.
(34:32):
My name is Tay and I'm herewith Panna van Overbeek from Project Polywog.
And so we were talking a bitof why frogs are important and I
want to go back to your missiona little bit. What So you are
focusing on two frogs right now?Which which frognis are you focusing on?
So the first one is the CaliforniaYellow I Get frog. And the reason
(34:57):
I chose that frog in particular isbecause I grew up in cal Bornia.
I'm just born and raised there,and so I really wanted to kind of
help my environment almost like like helpmy backyard. Yeah that makes these That
makes a lot of sense. Yeah, So I chose that one. And
then the other one that I chosewas the Georgia Go for frog. And
the reason I chose to Georgia.Go for frog was because it's number three
(35:20):
on the most Endangered Amphibian list,and so in my head, I'm kind
of like, Okay, well,if it's that high, then that means
it's probably really really to like beinggone. Yeah, literally just like not
being able to see these frogs anymore. And to me, it's like thinking
about my future generations, like mykids and their kids and their kids not
being able to see Like it's almostlike the dinosaurs, you know what I
(35:43):
mean, or like there were generationsbefore us that saw the dinosaurs and and
they're they're gone, right, andwe don't have that anymore, and so
like the thought of that would justit just makes me really sad. And
so that's yeah, that's why Ichose that one too, because they're more
close to being stinked. Yeah,I know, I mean that makes a
lot of sense. Like, youknow, we have had animals in the
(36:06):
past, even even within the lasttwenty thirty years, where there are none
of them in the world where youknow, they've either been hunted to death
or you know, fun stuff likethat. So you know, I understand,
like you know, when you havekids, you want to be able
to be like look, this isa frog. Like we have these when
(36:29):
I was your age, and Ihelp them yea, and yeah, I
think that's really sweet. And sowhen you purchase, so you adopt a
frog. Yes, so you arejust so cute, I know, I
just I love it. Of Soeach of our orders comes with well,
each of our jewelry orders, yeah, jewelry only. Yeah, it comes
(36:51):
with a adoption certificate. And inthe adoption certificate you have kind of like
a little spot where you can giveit a name. You can give it
a day, which is normally likethe day you receive it. Yeah,
And the idea is that you getto like name your jewelry piece because there
are frogs and every jewelry piece.Yeah. And so we also include a
metal Benefactor card inside of each one, which is like so nice quality.
(37:15):
That's crazy if you so, itreminds me of younger people. You'll probably
understand this when you used to getPokemon cards and sometimes they would have like
the metal really fancy ones or likekind of holographic or like just gold.
And it reminds me exactly. Yeah, it's really cool. That was told.
(37:36):
That was exactly what I was inspiredby. The Pokemon cards and so
I designed them kind of with thatin mind, because the ideas we want
them to go into your wallets,we want them your purses because whenever you're
wearing your jewelry, people will seethat. And it's such a unique interesting
piece that a lot of people kindof comment on it. And whenever you
get comments on it, the ideais to talk about the frogs and bring
(37:59):
yeah, like actually this next benefitedYeah exactly. Then you can bring it
out and then people can say like, oh, okay, so it's Project
Pollilog. This is what we're tryingto do. We're trying to reduce the
amount of endangered species in the world. So, yeah, I never found
but it is like a business cardthat last forever. Literally starts exactly like
a business card too, right,And so okay, So if people want
(38:22):
to go to the shop and youknow, look look us up, where
can they go drop all the socials? Yeah, romo, So you can
go to www. Dot Project Polywog, which is p O l l i
wog dot com, or you canfind us on Instagram at protect Polywog.
(38:45):
Yeah different, Yeah, I've mendedthat must take before protect. It's a
used to the project. But nowit's protect polyU, so it's like,
you know, protecting polywogs, likethat's what it is at protect polywog um.
Same thing with TikTok to protect pollwog. You can also find us on
Facebook at protect Polylogum and yeah,those are kind of that's where you can
(39:06):
that's where you can go if you'reinterested in checking it out. Yeah,
and you know, the website hasthe mission, it has um you know,
the frogs that we're looking to conserve. Um. You can read a
little bit about our rescue there.Um. There's everything on there and there
are so many adorable items. Again, Hannah pretty much designs all of them,
so they have a lot of lovein them. They're very very adorable,
(39:30):
and they're also I've seen a lotof adults buying them for like their
kids or like grandparents buying them fortheir kids, which I think is really
really sweet. So if you're lookingfor a birthday present, um famous present.
Yes, and the gift wrap isright now like during it changes with
every season, and thank you cardschanged too, which is yeah, they're
(39:53):
really cute. Yeah, so wehave so I guess I'll it's been a
little bit about the packaging experience.But we have the these thank you cards
that are actually collectible because the ideawas I designed them to help like reduce
waste in a way, because Iknow that whenever I order something, there's
there's almost always a thank you card. Yeah, but it's never like super
cute to where I want to likehang it on my wall, like do
(40:15):
not just shade anybody, But likethey're just not I wouldn't. It's a
card, like it's yeah, exactlylike I wouldn't put it on my wall.
But when I was designing my thinkycards, I was like, Okay,
I want people to actually like putthese on their walls, right,
and so I design them like littlepieces of art, so they're they're really
Yeah, they changed again. Theychange eight times a year, and each
(40:36):
of those cards are collectible, soyou can actually collect all the thank you
cards and then send us a pictureof them at the end of the year
to get Yeah, it's very it'svery much as they're a waste. I
mean, if you're like me,where you save everything, like they come
with with these little pouches. Allthe jewelry comes in these pouches. The
same project Polly Wog and I loveusing them. I've used them for gifts
before and people are like, oh, project, it's so cute and like
(40:59):
it's actually it's actually not from them. I just use pet because I poured
everything and I prouse everything. Butum, they're they're perfect for presents.
Yeah, and everything's recycled and cooltoo, so like the papers are recycled,
the bags. We ship it inour sustainable recyclable compostable too perfect.
I get stick it out there withthe veggie's. Thank yeah, so,
(41:21):
thank you so much Hannah for hangingout with me. I know we see
each other like every single day,but this is a bit it's different than
before. Bad um. I hopeeveryone enjoyed this episode. Again, if
you want to see Project Pollywog,it's Project polliwog dot com and all the
(41:42):
rest of the social media's are protectPolliwog and we'll see you back here,
same time, same place, nextweek. Thanks so much too. Yeah,
thank you for having me. Ihad such a great time. Amazing.
Bye y'all, thanks for listening.Thank you for joining us on pet
Owner Diary. Make sure to visitour website pet Ownerdiary dot com, where
(42:05):
you can sign up for our newsletter. View show highlights and download each episode
via SoundCloud. Make sure to subscribeto the show on your favorite podcast app
too, so you and your petnever miss an episode. Pet Family.
If you like what you hear,please share on your social media and tell
a friend to tune in on behalfof America's Pet Owner Coach Janelle Young.
(42:27):
We wish you love, peace andharmony with your pet. We'll catch you
in the next episode.
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